Friday, November 21, 2008

Well, it seems to be the Month of the Dentist at our house. And that's not necessarily a good thing.

I've never been an Anti-Dentite. I've spent quite a bit of time in the dentist chair over my lifetime. Probably because I have always had terrible teeth and am flat lazy when it comes to flossing. But I've never really had anything major or any cause to really dislike the dentist.

Other than that freak accident when Argus busted my tooth and I had to have a root canal. He has a scar. I have a fake tooth.

I took little C for his first dentist appointment this past week. I thought it might be a good idea to get established with a pediatric dentist. Having a boy, you never know what dental emergencies might arise in the midst of a Spiderman climb up some piece of furniture.

So I learned the "proper" way to brush C's teeth for him, he got a new toothbrush, and the Dentist declared him in fine shape. After, that is, C screamed and yelled while the poor man dared to actually open his mouth to look at his teeth. But C was none the worse for wear and even gave the Doc a fist bump afterwards.

My experience at the dentist this month however, is not as painless as C's has been.

At the first of the month, I went to the dentist for my check-up. As I have terrible teeth, there was, of course, something that needed to be fixed/redone/repaired. Actually, enough to encompass three appointments.

So, I grudgingly made the appointments, one for yesterday. What a sad waste of a Kids' Day Out day. But, might as well get things started, right?

I went in for my scheduled two and a half hour appointment (yes, that's 2 and another .5 hours) and mentioned that I'd had some tenderness in one area the past few days. Of course, it just happened to not be any of the aforementioned areas that needed work done.

So the dentist checked it out and examined the x-rays from my previous visit a bit closer. And he decided that maybe there was something weird going on there we couldn't quite see and we'd better take care of it. What he found when he got in there was, in his words, "surprising."

Let me just suffice it to say that my body is still in the business of doing weird things. Things that defy the textbooks and leave doctors scratching their heads in wonderment.

Yes, it's nice to be that patient.

The long and short of it is that I have to have a root canal. And of course, it's not something that can wait until, say, after Christmas. Or when we switch to new, better dental insurance in January. No, it must be done soon.

"Soon" as in Monday. Yeah, that's right. Monday. At 8:20am.

Luckily, Mom is able to take care of C for me. Because everyone else I know is tied up in Blessing Baskets on Monday; which is a worthy thing to be tied up in. And Mom has effectively untied herself from Blessing Baskets to keep C. Otherwise, I would be in mucho trouble. (Like my bilingual skills?)

So think of me on Monday. I'll be the one upside down in the dentist chair with all sorts of metal things poking out of my mouth.

I guess as long as the dentist doesn't try to tell any jokes, I'll be fine.